*LilyPond version 2.12 available -- 12 year anniversary release*
http://lilypond.org

We are proud to announce the release of GNU/LilyPond 2.12 "Rune".

Our joy is tinged with sadness, as long-time LilyPond contributor
and friend Rune Zedeler passed away on the 2nd of July, 2008. This
release is dedicated to him.

Rune was a computer programmer, a musician and a valued contributor
to LilyPond.  He had been enthusiastically involved in the project
for the past six years, and he will be sorely missed in our community.

*Major updates*

- Collision detection has been vastly improved.  Outside-staff objects
 now avoid each other automatically, so far fewer manual tweaks are
 required to obtain a pleasing layout.

- The documentation has been almost entirely rewritten during the
 year-long "Grand Documentation Project", and the online documentation
 is both much better-looking and far easier to browse.  The program
 is now available in 15 languages, and the documentation is partially
 available in French, Spanish and German.  It has never been easier to
 get started with 'Pond!

- Almost 30 new features, among others transposable fret diagrams,
 microtonal accidentals, and a much improved musicxml2ly, have been
 implemented and nearly 200 bugs have been fixed.  For a complete
 overview surf to http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.11/Documentation/topdocs/NEWS.html.

[include THANKS here]